


Ten'll Get You Twenty

by sabinelagrande



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Community: housefic_pens, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Ten Songs Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-11-22
Updated: 2006-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-14 10:57:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How it was, how it is, and how it's never gonna be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten'll Get You Twenty

**Commissioning a Symphony in C**

Cuddy finds him in a dive bar on the other side of town. It’s the middle of the afternoon, and nobody seems to care that he’s screwing around on the piano.

“What’s that called?” she asks, not bothering to take off her coat.

“Ode to a Relentless Harridan,” he answers, but the song turns light and sweet under his fingers.

Hours later, they’re still there, Cuddy singing along to whatever strikes his fancy, arms lightly around his shoulders. She’s caught off guard by applause, not realizing they’ve drawn an audience.

House takes advantage and kisses her, and the crowd cheers.

 

 **Wanna B Ur Lover  
**  
“Know what the word of the day is?” Chase asked, giving her his most captivating smile.

Cameron sighed. “Please don’t tell me it’s ‘legs’.”

Chase looked away, scratching the back of his neck. “Might be.”

“And you want me to spread the word?”

“If you wouldn’t mind terribly.”

She rolled her eyes. “Did Foreman put you up to this?”

“I guess you could say that, yeah.”

“What’s the bet?”

“$400.”

Checking to make sure Foreman was watching them, she leaned in and kissed him passionately, taking him by surprise and almost knocking him over. “You owe me $200,” she whispered.

 

 **Ramshackle  
**  
Like every other time, the secretary gives them a look that says they shouldn’t be there, but the doctor ushers them in with her usual grace.

Like every other time, Cameron holds her during the procedure, joking about turkey basters and slant boards.

Like every other time, Cameron wakes up to find the bed empty and Cuddy doubled up in the bathroom crying. The pregnancy test lies on the cold tile, mocking the both of them.

Like every other time, Cameron brushes the tears out of her eyes and tries to tell her that it’s all going to be beautiful.

 

 **Last Call**

“Till we can’t or we fall,” House said, raising his glass.

It was a long time gone, but neither of them missed the implication. The last time, they’d screamed and stormed and raged at each other, everything falling apart spectacularly. Like rational adults, they all agreed to put it aside, pretend it had never happened.

But that was then, with so much time gone, and this was now. And if it could be so good while it lasted, wasn’t it worth doing again?

Cuddy looked slyly at Wilson, raising his glass. Rolling his eyes, he clicked his glass against theirs.

 

 **Defend Me Still  
**  
“I want my lawyer,” Cameron repeats for the third time.

“We’re getting to that,” Tritter says in his deceptively easy way.

He tosses a folder nonchalantly onto the metal table, and a photo slides out so easily that she can almost believe it’s accidental. She knows what it’s going to be before she sees it. He’s chosen well- they’re lying in bed, House just laughing away at something she’s said.

Tritter smiles at her beneficently, as if he’s the only way to the light.

She knows she’s damned, but she’s not the one on trial. Yet.

“Lawyer.”

Tritter just smiles.

 

 **Wicked Game  
**  
“Knees. Now.”

Chase hits the floor in an instant, looking down at the floor and trying not to shiver with anticipation.

House doesn’t bother getting out of his chair. “Cameron,” he barks; she practically materializes at his side. He doesn’t need to say anything, just nods and she obeys.

Cameron grabs Chase by his hair and practically throws him forward. Instinctively, his arms shoot out from his sides to support him.

“Did I say you could move?” House asks him.

“No, sir,” Chase breathes.

House smiles at Cameron. “Correct him.”

Chase silently wonders if they can arrange Thursdays as well.

 

 **Sweetness Follows**

It takes a very long time for the ice to thaw around them. Foreman gives her a ride home; Cameron calls him for drinks; they have a laugh together at Chase’s expense.

It isn’t a quick thing- it’s a long war of attrition, always three steps forward and two steps back.

Before long, House starts in on them; it isn’t until Cameron starts blushing over it that Foreman thinks it might not be just his imagination.

It isn’t until Foreman kisses her in the hallway, in front of God and everybody, that Cameron finally comes around.

House never really does.

 

 **Tempted To Touch  
**  
There’s less than a foot of couch between them; there’s rarely more, and not a night with House goes by that Wilson doesn’t think about crossing it.

He isn’t gay- at least he doesn’t think so- and anyway, he’s not sure that that even has anything to do with it. He never could leave well enough alone, especially when it involved affection.

The same scenarios play out in his head every time he thinks about it: they’ll be ruined; they’ll be awkward, they’ll be happy. He isn’t sure which one he’s afraid of.

He slides closer; and whatever happens, happens.

 

 **Baby Gonna Leave Me  
**  
“I read your recommendation,” Foreman said as he slammed into her office.

“Silly me, I thought those were supposed to be confidential.”

“I thought you were supposed to be a professional.”

“You’re only trying to leave because House pissed you off,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“It shouldn’t matter to you what House is doing.”

As he turned to leave, Cuddy grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into a kiss. “Who said it did?” She took his face in her hands, putting her forehead against his. “Did you really think I was going to let you get away that easily?”

 

 **Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps**

Chase has got this air about him, this look that says he’s going to do just little enough to maintain plausible deniability. A hint here, a touch there, a gaze held just long enough to be suspicious.

Wilson is far past the point of enjoying these little games. After the kind of year he’s had, he knows what he needs, and he isn’t about to wait for it. He deserves anything at all.

That’s why it doesn’t surprise either of them when Wilson catches Chase in the locker room, shoving him up against the wall and taking what he wants.


End file.
